What was the connection between the Bushes and Nixon?

[darklordoftech]

What was Nixon's history with the Bushes before he nominated HW to be an ambassador?

[darklordoftech]

Oddly enough, it was Bush and a crew of two other Nixon administration members that floated on the periphery that would come to have a heavy hand in Republican administrations for the next three decades or so--Donald Rumsfeld went on to serve as Chief of Staff and twice as Defense Secretary, while Dick Cheney became the House Minority Whip, Secretary of Defense, and Vice President. The first Republican Governor of Texas since Reconstruction, Bill Clements, served as Deputy Secretary of Defense for Nixon and Ford.

Maybe the bigger players in the Nixon administration were brought down by Watergate, leaving these figures to fill the vaccuum?

[darklordoftech]

It should be noted that, in light of Bush's ambitions, the offices he served in under Nixon and Ford were a relative disappointment. If you count 1968, Ford and Nixon combined snubbed him for the Vice Presidency four times--1968, 1973, 1974, and 1976.

I've read that Bush felt that Rumsfeld cheated him out of the Vice Presidency in 1974, and as a result he hated Rumsfeld and was disappointed by his son's decision to appoint Rumsfeld.

[darklordoftech]

A picture of Nixon and Prescott Bush. I've seen that picture on conspiracy theory websites. What's the non-conspiracy-theory context of that picture?

[darklordoftech]

A picture of Nixon and Prescott Bush. I've seen that picture on conspiracy theory websites. What's the non-conspiracy-theory context of that picture?

Not entirely sure when it was taken - I think late 40s/early 50s? Remember that Prescott Bush was a very close friend of people like W. Averall Harriman, Robert Lovett, and the Dulles brothers - aka, the "Wise Men" of early Cold War-era US foreign policy, and the bipartisan WASP Establishment in general.

Many (most?) of these men had gone to Yale, had been involved in elite WASPy banking firms like Brown Brothers Harriman (in which Prescott Bush had been a senior partner, along with the Harriman brothers, Lovett, and other "Wise Men" exemplars) and many had been part of the ultra-secretive Skull and Bones society at Yale (which was notorious for producing CIA officers, in addition to other foreign policy Establishment figures in the State and Defense Departments). Prescott Bush was very much a part of this elite inner circle of Skull and Bones alumni - and that was before he was elected US Senator from Connecticut. He lived in Greenwich; how much more "Establishment" can you get?

Moreover, Bush was elected as a US Senator in a special election in 1952 - the same year in which sitting US Senator Richard Nixon was elected Vice President on Dwight Eisenhower's ticket. The two Dulles brothers headed the CIA and the State Department in Eisenhower's administration, and other WASPy Wise Men figures could be found throughout the rest of the administration. And Prescott Bush was not just a staunchly loyal ally of Eisenhower in the Senate; he was also one of Eisenhower's closest friends and confidants. Consider the fact that they were golf partners on a regular basis during Eisenhower's Presidency (Ike, of course, was a notoriously prolific and skilled golfer... )

Needless to say, Nixon knew Prescott Bush very well, I'd imagine - as well as any other Republican Senator in the Eisenhower years. Which would later be very helpful for Prescott Bush's most famous son...

Ah, I see. What I find interesting is how Nixon had his fingers deep inside every wing of the GOP from the WASP Eastern Establishment to the Ford wing to the Buckley/Goldwater/Reagan wing. HW and Dubya reinvented themselves as Reaganites as the GOP grew more conservative.